Man thought to have been murdered by 'Killer Clown' John Wayne Gacy in 1970s is found ALIVE in Florida By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 10:57 PM on 26th October 2011

family who believed their brother was murdered at the hands of one of America's most notorious serial killers was stunned to be told he's actually alive and well.In May 1977, Harold Wayne Lovell vanished from his family's home in Cook County, Illinois, and was never heard from again.For his family, all signs pointed to John Wayne Gacy, the prolific killer who murdered 33 young men in the 1970s.

snippedEarlier this month, detectives secretly exhumed the bones in hopes of answering a final question: Who were they?The Cook County Sheriff’s Office urged relatives of anyone who vanished between 1970 and Gacy's 1978 arrest - and still unaccounted for - to undergo tests to compare their DNA with that of the skeletal remains.

Man thought to have been murdered by 'Killer Clown' John Wayne Gacy in 1970s is found ALIVE in Florida By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 10:57 PM on 26th October 2011

family who believed their brother was murdered at the hands of one of America's most notorious serial killers was stunned to be told he's actually alive and well.In May 1977, Harold Wayne Lovell vanished from his family's home in Cook County, Illinois, and was never heard from again.For his family, all signs pointed to John Wayne Gacy, the prolific killer who murdered 33 young men in the 1970s.

snippedEarlier this month, detectives secretly exhumed the bones in hopes of answering a final question: Who were they?The Cook County Sheriff’s Office urged relatives of anyone who vanished between 1970 and Gacy's 1978 arrest - and still unaccounted for - to undergo tests to compare their DNA with that of the skeletal remains.

(Bolded by me)Nut, this seems familiar to me, and I too thought we had a topic on this. I'll look around because I'd sure like to find it if it's here. That said, I wonder sometimes if we've read articles about cases in different places over the years it's sometimes hard to remember just where we've seen it.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

::snipping2::Man thought to be John Wayne Gacy victim found alive after 34 years

2:27 a.m. CDT, October 27, 2011

For most of the 34 years Harold Wayne Lovell was missing, his family thought he was another victim of one of America's most notorious serial killers.

But two weeks ago, after the Cook County (Ill.) Sheriff's Office reopened the case of John Wayne Gacy to try to identify eight victims through skeletal remains, a relative of Lovell's spotted a Florida police mug shot that turned the family's world upside down.

The man who disappeared when he was 19 did not die by the hand of the so-called Killer Clown after all. Instead, he was working busboy jobs in South Beach, partying in Fort Lauderdale, and making another life for himself far from his troubled home near Chicago.

"I never stopped thinking about my mom or my brothers and my sisters," Lovell, now 53, said from rural Alabama on Wednesday, during an emotional family reunion.

"I feel bad that they had to go through life thinking that I'd been killed like that," he said. "I feel terrible. But I was a teenager, and who didn't want to go to Fort Lauderdale, where it's nice, sunny and hot?"

Lovell left his home in Aurora, Ill., in May 1977, telling his relatives he was off to look for a construction job. Instead he made his way to Florida, and for the next three years worked a series of odd jobs in hotels and restaurants.

When he never came back, a younger sister, Theresa Hasselberg, along with his brother Tim, became convinced that their brother — who goes by Wayne — had crossed paths with the serial killer. Gacy had done construction work at a Aurora fast-food restaurant about that time.

They kept scrapbooks about the grisly killings, and shuddered at the realization that Wayne fit perfectly the profile of many of Gacy's victims: boys between the ages of 14 and 21. ::snipping2::

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced Tuesday that William George Bundy has been positively identified as one of Gacy's victims. Bundy was reported missing in 1976, and was possibly lured to Gacy with the promise of construction work. He was 19 at the time of his murder.

Bundy had previously been identified as Victim #19 - the nineteenth body to be removed from the crawlspace beneath Gacy's Northwest Side home, three days after Christmas in 1978.

Two of Bundy's surving siblings submitted to DNA tests after Dart's office launched a national campaign in October to put names to eight of Gacy's unidentified victims. Investigators had exhumed remains from each of the victims, and were looking for family members who could help make a DNA match. DNA from the cheek of Bundy's siblings helped positively identify him as a victim, Dart said.

::snipping2::

Twenty-six of Gacy's 33 victims have now been identified.

In October investigators discovered that 53-year-old Harold Wayne Lovell, thought to have been a Gacy victim, is alive and has been living in Florida.

~Hey Nutt~ This is not related to the Gacy case, but I wanted to let you know about it in case you missed it regarding "Houston, TX serial killer Dean Corll and Elmer Henley", a teenager has been ID as one of their victims. Here is the link to read more. I didn't see a thread related to this serial killer but thought it would be of interest to you.

Lawyers: DNA proves John Wayne Gacy victim was misidentifiedBy Isolde Raftery, NBC News10-25-12When Sherry Marino visited the grave marked with her son’s name, she would ask, “Is this you, Michael?”Each time, she felt nothing, a feeling she brought to authorities, questioning whether the body in the grave belonged to her son, Michael Marino, a 14-year-old who went missing in 1976 who had long been labeled a victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

On Wednesday, she was redeemed. She was on her way to the cemetery, marking the 36th year since the day her son disappeared, when her lawyers called her: The boy in the grave was not her son.

For years, Marino fought to have the grave exhumed. When she approached Steven Becker and Robert Stephenson of Becker Stephenson, they agreed to work on her behalf, pro bono.

After fighting bureaucracy, they said they succeeded in having the body unearthed.

Lawyers contend Gacy had help in some killings BY FRANK MAIN Sun-Times Media February 9, 2012 9:52PM ::snipping2::Two Chicago lawyers have re-examined the circumstances surrounding the disappearances of three victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy and concluded that he probably had one or more accomplices. ::snipping2::The three young men disappeared in 1977 and were among 29 victims found in 1978 on Gacy’s property in unincorporated Norwood Park Township. ::snipping2::The attorneys said they reviewed Gacy’s travel and work records, which indicated he was out of town when Nelson and Gilroy disappeared. The work records also showed Gacy didn’t have much time to abduct, torture and kill Mowery, the lawyers said.

Stephenson said that after Gacy was arrested in 1978, he told officers that others were involved directly in some of the killings but only referred to them as “my associates.”more at link

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goodmorn,goodnite, got to go, as always its been wonderful, talking with you, and most of all have a great day, and dont forget to smile